1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus such as a facsimile, printer, copying machine and the like, and more particularly, it relates to a recording apparatus which can positively direct a sheet on which an image is recorded towards a cutter.
2. Related Background Art
Nowadays, recording apparatuses such as facsimiles printers and the like have widely been used. In general, a recording system used with such recording apparatus is constituted as shown in FIG. 7. More particularly, a heat sensitive recording sheet 51 is fed out from a sheet roll by means of a platen roller 50, the recording sheet 51 is selectively heated by a recording head 52 to form an image thereon, and the sheet 51 is cut rearwardly of the image by means of a cutter 53, and then the cut sheet is ejected.
With such arrangement, in order to positively feed the recorded sheet between a movable blade 53a and a fixed blade 53b of the cutter 53, guides 54 and 55 are arranged between the platen roller 50 and the cutter 53. A distance or gap 56 between the platen roller 50 and the guide 54 must be controlled so that the recording sheet 51 does not escape from the gap 56. Further, the guide 54 must be controlled so that the end of the guide 54 adjacent the cutter is positioned higher than the movable blade 53a and a distance or gap between the end of the guide and the movable blade 53a is not so large as to prevent a leading edge of the recording sheet 51 from escaping below the movable blade. To this end, conventionally, the gap 56 was controlled and adjusted when the guide 54 or cutter 53 is installed.
Incidentally, in a conventional technique when a frame of the facsimile and the like was constituted by a sheet metal chassis, it was practical that the platen roller 50 was rotatably fitted into holes formed on both side walls of the chassis, and the guides 54, 55 and the cutter 53 were fixedly mounted on a stay of the chassis. In this case, the adjustments of the gaps between the guide 54 and the platen roller 50 and/or the cutter 53 relied upon the dimensional accuracy of various parts. The reason is that the cutter 53 must be positioned with respect to the chassis in order to ensure the proper cutter stroke, since a driving link for the cutter 53 is positioned by the chassis.
Further, in some cases, the frame is constituted by a chassis having a base made of molded resin. In this case, the orientation of threaded holes is restricted by the cost-down of the mold. In such circumstances, the gap between the platen roller 50 and the guide 54 is adjusted when the guide 54 is attached onto the chassis base from top by means of screws. Further, the cutter 53 is fixed to the chassis base while positioning the former by fitting the holes of the cutter onto pins formed on the chassis base. In this case, the guide 54 is fastened together with the cutter between the chassis base and the cutter 53.
It is desired to make the facsimile and the like compact. In this case, if a diameter of a core 51a of the sheet roll is decreased, when the amount of the recording sheet 51 in the sheet roll is reduced, the recording sheet will be a curled condition. For example, when the diameter of the core 51a of the sheet roll is about 16 mm and the outer diameter of to the platen roller 50 is about 16 mm, such curl will be of the order of 18-20 mm.
Therefore, the curled recording sheet 51 tends to enter into the gap 56 between the platen roller 50 and the guide 54; in such a case, in order to prevent the recording sheet from entering into the gap 56, the dimension of the gap must be limited to 0.3-0.8 mm or less.
However, as in the conventional case, when the adjustment of the gap relies upon the dimensional accuracy of various parts or when the gap is not adjusted, the dimension of the gap will be 1 mm or more at the least. Therefore, in order to control the gap between the guide and the platen roller and/or the cutter, the adjustment of the gap must be performed for each recording apparatus, which prevents the costdown of the apparatus and/or causes inferiority of the apparatus due to the error of the gap adjustment.
In addition, when the chassis is constituted by the molded resin, since the number of bends in the guides is increased and the guides are fastened together with the cutter, the adjustment of the gaps must be performed more precisely.